Press Release Criterion Press Release: The Girl Can't Help It (1956) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

In 1956, Frank Tashlin brought the talent for zany visual gags and absurdist pop-culture satire that he’d honed as a master of animation to the task of capturing, in glorious DeLuxe Color, a brand-new craze: rock and roll. This blissfully bonkers jukebox musical tells the story of a mobster’s bombshell girlfriend—the one and only Jayne Mansfield, in a showstopping first major film role—and the washed-up talent agent (Tom Ewell) who seeks to revive his career by turning her into a musical sensation. The only question is: Can she actually sing? A CinemaScope feast of eye-popping midcentury design, The Girl Can’t Help Itbops along to a parade of performances by rock-and-roll trailblazers—including Little Richard, Fats Domino, Julie London, Eddie Cochran, the Platters, and Gene Vincent—who light up the screen with the uniquely American sound that was about to conquer the world.

FILM INFO​

• United States
• 1956
• 97 minutes
• Color
• 2.35:1
• English
• Spine #1120

SPECIAL FEATURES​

• New high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary featuring film scholar Toby Miller
• New interview with Eve Golden, biographer of actor Jayne Mansfield
• New video essay by film critic David Cairns
• Interview with filmmaker John Waters
• New conversation between WFMU DJs Dave “the Spazz” Abramson and Gaylord Fields about the music in the film
• On-set footage
• Interviews with Mansfield (1957) and musician Little Richard (1984)
• Episode of Karina Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember Thisabout Mansfield
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Rachel Syme and, for the Blu-ray, excerpts from director Frank Tashlin’s 1952 book How to Create Cartoons with a new introduction by Ethan de Seife, author of Tashlinesque: The Hollywood Comedies of Frank Tashlin
  
  New cover by Jaffa the Unknown

April 19, 2022

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Thank you for supporting HTF when you preorder using the link below. If you are using an adblocker you will not see link. As an Amazon Associate HTF earns from qualifying purchases

 

[DigniT@DigniT!]

View attachment 125258​

In 1956, Frank Tashlin brought the talent for zany visual gags and absurdist pop-culture satire that he’d honed as a master of animation to the task of capturing, in glorious DeLuxe Color, a brand-new craze: rock and roll. This blissfully bonkers jukebox musical tells the story of a mobster’s bombshell girlfriend—the one and only Jayne Mansfield, in a showstopping first major film role—and the washed-up talent agent (Tom Ewell) who seeks to revive his career by turning her into a musical sensation. The only question is: Can she actually sing? A CinemaScope feast of eye-popping midcentury design, The Girl Can’t Help Itbops along to a parade of performances by rock-and-roll trailblazers—including Little Richard, Fats Domino, Julie London, Eddie Cochran, the Platters, and Gene Vincent—who light up the screen with the uniquely American sound that was about to conquer the world.

FILM INFO​

• United States
• 1956
• 97 minutes
• Color
• 2.35:1
• English
• Spine #1120

SPECIAL FEATURES​

• New high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary featuring film scholar Toby Miller
• New interview with Eve Golden, biographer of actor Jayne Mansfield
• New video essay by film critic David Cairns
• Interview with filmmaker John Waters
• New conversation between WFMU DJs Dave “the Spazz” Abramson and Gaylord Fields about the music in the film
• On-set footage
• Interviews with Mansfield (1957) and musician Little Richard (1984)
• Episode of Karina Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember Thisabout Mansfield
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Rachel Syme and, for the Blu-ray, excerpts from director Frank Tashlin’s 1952 book How to Create Cartoons with a new introduction by Ethan de Seife, author of Tashlinesque: The Hollywood Comedies of Frank Tashlin
  
  New cover by Jaffa the Unknown

April 19, 2022

A FAVORITE FILM! The Music and that special brand of FRANK TASHLIN MADNESS!

 

[RCRochester]

I'm so excited by this announcement. Being a Fox title, I was concerned it would never get a release. In addition to being a fun comedy with Jayne Mansfield at her best, this is a significant time capsule of 50s rock & roll acts.

 

[RichMurphy]

What a delightful surprise. Was hoping this would someday come out on Blu-Ray, but gave up hope after the Fox sale to Disney.

At last, "The Chuckles" in high definition! (The lead singer Teddy Randazzo went on to write most of the big hits of Little Anthony and the Imperials)

 

[RolandL]

"monaural soundtrack"?

Should be 4.0 stereo.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Does not appear to have been mixed in 4-track actually.

 

[Thomas T]

"monaural soundtrack"?

Should be 4.0 stereo.

I stand to be corrected but I don't believe The Girl Can't Help It was ever released in true stereo. Even the DVD has a mono soundtrack with the option of a fake stereo soundtrack (mono sound sent through all 4 or 5 speakers depending on your set up).

 

[RolandL]

The following sites mention stereo sound. I guess they are all wrong.

Turner Classic Movies

Rottentomatoes

imdb

 

[Paul Penna]

The following sites mention stereo sound. I guess they are all wrong.

Turner Classic Movies

Rottentomatoes

imdb

The Turner Classic Movies site says its movie information is "Powered by AFI" on each page but the AFI (American Film Institute) site itself makes no mention of stereo in its details for the film. I'm not sure where Rotten Tomatoes gets its info, but the fact that they list an early VHS video company (Key Video) under "Distributors" as does the imdb makes wonder about that.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Key Video was an imprint of CBS Fox dedicated to art house and older films with lower commercial appeal. And yes Fox DID release The Girl Can't Help It under that brand.

They would have labled it as being in stereo on the box so all arrows point to mono.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

It's a must-have for all who love 50s rock 'n roll. If properly chapter-indexed so we can move from song to song and ignore all the crap in between, it will be a winner.

 

[Mark B]

If previously recorded songs were featured in the film, they would have been in mono as stereo records hadn't quite made the scene yet. I have always assumed that was the reason this one was in mono.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Stereo tapes hit in 1954 and records in 1958.

All 20th Century Fox color CinemaScope features at that time were in 4 channel stereophonic sound. Some do not survive and this appears to be one of them.

Binaural or Bust - 3dfilmarchive

www.3dfilmarchive.com

First Year of Stereo Records - 3dfilmarchive

www.3dfilmarchive.com

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Stereo tapes hit in 1954 and records in 1958.

All 20th Century Fox color CinemaScope features at that time were in 4 channel stereophonic sound. Some do not survive and this appears to be one of them.

Binaural or Bust - 3dfilmarchive

www.3dfilmarchive.com

First Year of Stereo Records - 3dfilmarchive

www.3dfilmarchive.com

Back in the laserdisc days, I remember reading an article (in The Perfect Vision magazine, I think) stating that Fox was looking for duplicate magnetic masters for this movie because some obsessive film collector clipped out all of the music segments from the ones in their inventory.

 

[Thomas T]

It's a must-have for all who love 50s rock 'n roll. If properly chapter-indexed so we can move from song to song and ignore all the crap in between, it will be a winner.

Pity that you feel that way because that "crap" is pure gold. Frank Tashlin's satire on fame and America's mammary madness is often quite witty even if the humor occasionally aims for the obvious. Its double entendres, both verbal and visual, are irresistible. Mansfield's "talents" have never been put to better use. One critic said, "Tashlin's rock and roll version of Born Yesterday is the nearest he came to a masterpiece". The rock and roll acts are the icing on the cake, not the cake.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

The scoring sessions were done on 35mm magnetic film at Fox circa August/September 1956. The sessions for Elvis' first film were done in stereo at Fox around that same time.

Elvis Presley Recording Sessions

Elvis presley recording sessions 1954 - 1976

www.keithflynn.com

Here's one of the true stereo tracks from the Reno Brothers sessions. This will give you an idea how the music in the Tashlin film would have been recorded for stereo.

 

[Stephen PI]

Stereo tapes hit in 1954 and records in 1958.

All 20th Century Fox color CinemaScope features at that time were in 4 channel stereophonic sound. Some do not survive and this appears to be one of them.

Binaural or Bust - 3dfilmarchive

www.3dfilmarchive.com

First Year of Stereo Records - 3dfilmarchive

www.3dfilmarchive.com

DESK SET was released in mono.

 

[cinemiracle]

Maybe we will eventually get a bluray of Mansfield's other masterpiece: THE SHERIFF OF FRACTURED JAW. Everything is great about this musical /western. I never tire of see the film on dvd. It looked even better when seen in cinemascope.

 

[Keith Cobby]

I'll be buying this but I also like to see chapter stops for musical numbers (not enough discs do this). As Criterion have this, perhaps they will also be able to distribute The Best Things in Life Are Free, which many of us are waiting for.

Regarding Jayne Mansfield, I prefer her 'small' British film Too Hot to Handle which, although filmed in colour, received a UK DVD release in b & w, and a German release in colour but only a German dubbed soundtrack, should be on blu ray.